A Dark Day for Israel

Michael Freund, 16/02/05 00:00

לבן ריק

צילום: ערוץ 7

Michael Freund

Michael Freund served as Deputy Communications Director in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office under Binyamin Netanyahu during his first term of office. He is the Founder and Chairman of Shavei Israel (www.shavei.org), a Jerusalem-based organization that searches for and assists the Lost Tribes of Israel and other "hidden Jews" seeking to return to the Jewish people. In addition, Freund is a correspondent and syndicated columnist for the Jerusalem Post, and authors a popular blog on Middle East affairs, Fundamentally Freund. A native New Yorker, Freund is a graduate of Princeton University and holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia. He has lived in Israel for the past 19 years and remains a loyal New York Mets fan....

By a vote of 59 to 40, with 5 abstentions, the Knesset has now formally approved the expulsion of all Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria.

After 12 years of Oslo, after thousands of innocent Israeli men, women and children were systematically murdered by Palestinian terrorists, after all the suicide bombings, the rocket attacks, the stabbings, the shootings, and the failed “peace accords”, the sovereign parliament of the State of Israel has formally declared defeat.

For decades, Yasser Arafat dreamt of the day when Jews would be forced to flee their homes, handing them over to Palestinian control. But what Arafat failed to accomplish during his lifetime, the Israeli government is now planning to carry out instead.

It defies all logic, it makes no sense. A Jewish government in the Land of Israel expelling Jews from their homes? Is this some sort of nightmare, some type of horrible dream that we will all suddenly awaken from, only to discover that it was an illusion?

I have to admit – I’m afraid. I’m afraid for the 9,000 Jews who face expulsion from their homes. I’m afraid for the growing split in the nation that the withdrawal plan is causing.

But most of all, I’m afraid for the future of this country, for its very identity as a Zionist and Jewish state.

Don’t be fooled – this is about far more than just the fate of 9,000 Jewish “settlers”. This is about the very essence of Israel itself – and when it comes to that, there can be no compromises.

We must raise our voices, loud and clear, before it is too late. We must storm the heavens with our prayers, and plead for Divine mercy and intervention. We must do whatever is legally and morally possible to avert this evil decree.